It has long been recognized that the electrical outlets found in the walls of residences pose hazards for small children who may attempt to insert metallic foreign objects into the receptacles of the outlets. And, so, prior inventors have devised a variety of protective covers for these outlets to discourage child access to the receptacles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,624 granted Nov. 24, 1981 to F. M. Newman for "ELECTRIC WALL OUTLET PROTECTOR", is representative of prior inventive efforts in this field. The protector disclosed in this patent utilizes spring biased swinging plates to cover and uncover the electrical outlet receptacles. Although the Newman protector may be entirely satisfactory for its intended purpose, it is a fairly complex and, hence, expensive article.
To encourage people to install protective cover systems for their electrical outlets, the systems should be as simple and as inexpensive as possible. There is too the further requirement that the cover systems be attractive in appearance. Otherwise, their use will be further discouraged.